25th Street Station project back before key Baltimore City panel

Larry Perl, Baltimore Sun Media Group

Developers of the proposed 25th Street Station shopping center in Remington are scheduled to bring updated plans to a Baltimore City design review board Sept. 26, in a clear sign that the controversial project, stalled by a lawsuit earlier this year, is moving forward.

Rick Walker's development team, WV Urban Development, LLC, will go before the city's Urban Design and Architectural Review Panel, which approved the original plans for a shopping center, to be anchored by a Wal-Mart and Lowe's at 25th and Howard streets. Another city panel, the Site Plan Review Committee will look at the project Oct. 2.

Lowe's has long since pulled out of the development , which is scaled back accordingly, with Wal-Mart taking over a 10,000-square-foot space where Lowe's originally was planning a garden center, according to new draft plans filed with the city Department of Planning. Also gone are plans for a parking garage, now that Lowe's is out.

“It's been a reduction of density,” said Anthony Cataldo, a design planner and UDARP coordinator.

Other than that, not much appears to have changed.

“From the functional, bird's-eye level, it kind of looks the same,” Cataldo said.

Earlier this year, Bruce Mortimer, president of the Anderson Automotive Group and owner of the 11-acre site, filed a lawsuit against Walker's team and said he would sell to Seawall Development Corp. The suit, which stemmed from a missed deadline for Wal-Mart to commit to purchasing a portion of the site, was settled in August.